Hades and Persephone Picture

1. In Greek mythology, Persephone (Περσεφόνη) was the personification of the earth's fruitfulness and was also the Queen of the Underworld. She was the daughter of both Demeter and Zeus, and quite favored by Demeter. She was usually portrayed robed, carrying a sheaf of grain and smiling with the "Archaic smile" of the Kore of Antenor. The Romans called her Proserpina.

She was an innocent goddess who was abducted by Hades while she picked flowers in a field with Nymphs. Demeter searched everywhere for her daughter, until she was informed by Helios of what happened. The seasons changed because of Demeters depression, and mortals began to starve because their crops were dying. Cries from the mortals' hunger forced the gods who heard their anguish to confront Zeus. Angered by Hades, Zeus demanded he return Persephone, sending Hermes to retrieve her. Before doing so, however, Hades tricked Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds, which would force Persephone to return to him for a season each year. In some tellings of the story however, it was Zeus who suggested the union, and sometimes even Persephone herself.

2. Hades was one of six children of Cronos and Rhea, he was married to Persephone, whom he kidnapped. He and his siblings were rescued by Zeus from the Wrath of Cronos. Then, when the Titanomachy came, Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, the principal gods that battled, fought for humanity and, along with the other Olympians, emerged victorious. After the battle, it proved necessary to organize the Cosmos. Thus, after the war, the three brothers drew lots. Poseidon got the waters and the Oceans, Zeus the heavens and the rule of the gods, and Hades became the God of the Underworld, its deepest part being Tartarus, a place of suffering and pain and the battle ground of the Great War. The Underworld is also referred to as Hades.

In Greek mythology, Hades rarely interfered with mortals, unless they tried to cheat death, and was rather passive and unselfish. This is ironic as he's often portrayed as evil in modern connotations. His Roman equivalent is Pluto. Hades refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the God; the genitive, Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative, too, came to designate the abode of the dead.

In Greek mythology, Hades is the oldest male child of Cronos and Rhea. According to myth, Zeus and Poseidon defeated the Titans, claimed rulership over the universe, including the underworld, air, and sea, respectively; the solid earth, long the province of Gaia, was available to all three concurrently. Because of his association with the underworld, Hades is often interpreted by moderns as the Grim Reaper, even though he was not.

The Romans referred to Hades as Pluto, from his Greek epithet, meaning "Rich One". In Roman mythology, Pluto was called Dis Pater and Orcus. The corresponding Etruscan God was Aita. Symbols associated with him are the Helm of Darkness and the three-headed dog, Cerberus.

In Christian theology, the term hades refers to the abode of the dead. This is parallel to the Hebrew Sheol (שאול, grave or dirt-pit) and the English Hell (Old English, hel), which was derived from Norse mythology for the land of the dead.